The Internet (Essay #3)

Do you ever make personal information available online? If so, how confident are you of its security? Do you take steps to protect your privacy?

There are very few times when I make my personal information available online simply because I don’t trust it. It is very easy for anyone to write in that they are working for a credible organization and take your money before disappearing entirely. Also, as I showed in class, your information can be accessed by millions of people and, in my personal experience; there are many out there who should not be given that type of power.

A good example is an organization that my friend’s parents discovered a few years ago via internet. They stated that they were a Christian organization that you send money to, they invest it in a high interest account, send some overseas to the needy, and also double it sending you the newly earned profits. My friend’s parents not only researched it extensively, but her dad flew to California where it was stationed and spoke with the man directly before dumping massive amounts of money into it, as well as convincing my family and several of their friends to invest too. Several months later the police were at their door accusing them of being a part of a very elaborate scam and they lost a good chunk of money.

Beyond that I’ve had friends who’ve gotten stalkers through things like myspace, I had a friend who met someone over the internet when she was 14, ‘dated’ him for a few years and then found out he was 23, and another girl at my school had someone come to her house who had found her on myspace. In my opinion the internet is not safe by any stretch of the imagination and there are very few sites that I give my personal information to.

On nearly any site that you sign up for it will ask for your name and address, sometimes phone number. These things are rarely essential to the use of the site so I typically will enter incorrect, but easily memorable information. My address is never given out (unless it is for billing or shipping information) and if it asks for both my name and my birthday I’ll put an incorrect birth date. I never sign up for anything that I’m not 100% sure about, do all my financial transactions through pay pal, and think of passwords so ridiculous that no one would ever be able to figure them out (I also have several different passwords that I alternate between). My myspace is not only on private but says I live in Zimbabwe and beyond saying that I’m in a relationship had no other information listed.

Despite all the actions to keep myself safe on the internet I do feel that it is a bit more safe then I give it credit for. Not every website is out to get you and not every networking page is laced with stalkers who are going to find me, given past experiences though I take no chances when it comes to the internet.